Communications

Telecom accounting and finance reporting software

Communications companies around the world are waking up to the importance of the finance organisation and the benefits of highly detailed financial data. The by-product of accounting compliance for many companies is new found access to revenue forecasting, profitability analysis and true cost allocations.

The single greatest challenge facing communications companies around the world today is the impact of the new IFRS 15 (or ASC 606 in the USA) revenue accounting standard. Aptitude Software have a tried and tested solution running in operators globally, for more information visit our Revenue Recognition Engine pages.

Many Communications companies struggle to close the books quickly, gain access to detailed financial information and respond quickly to regulatory change. Current architectures consist of multiple billing systems and highly manual and opaque accounting processes (e.g. spreadsheets) which feed rigid and highly aggregated accounting solutions. As companies look to grow and add new subscribers with differentiated offerings, the old way of accounting and manually analyzing data will not work.

Regulatory changes like the new revenue recognition standard are prompting organizations to assess their current financial architecture and many are using this opportunity to refresh and make key changes to their core finance processes.

Communications companies need to transform their finance architecture. Addressing these challenges will require software systems that allow for flexibility, quick deployment, support complex regulatory accounting and provide the ability to process and analyze massive quantities of data very quickly. Our flexible, integrated finance accounting solutions can help you address the following challenges:

Create a single version of the truth: Reduce manual work and errors by integrating granular data from source systems with linkage to the general ledger and finance data warehouses with rich detail stored in a sub-ledger.

Alternatively, we would love to chat with you about our work with leading telecom companies across North America and Europe – contact us here.

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Example use case

Problem

A large US Communications company needed to transform the way they processed data for accounting and analysis. The complexity of their existing billing and disparate systems made data integrity questionable and only provided summarized details that made audits and traceability difficult. Prolific spreadsheet usage and extended, manual close periods were draining resources.

Solution

The Aptitude™ Accounting Hub enabled integration and standardizion data from multiple billing systems within a finance-controlled, “books & records” quality environment. Once the foundational data layer was established, the Aptitude Revenue Recognition Engine provided a purpose built solution to address the standard without ripping and replacing the IT environment.

Results

The solution offered the company the ability to do granular accounting across their various billing systems. Finance teams now have more control over the solution, reducing their reliance on IT. Finally, data integrity and transparency greatly improved analytics capabilities and allowed them to more easily address the new revenue recognition standard.

While the new leasing standard changes brought about by ASC 842/IFRS 16 will affect multiple industries, the telecommunications industry is one that will be significantly impacted. Telcos are already reeling from the efforts related to implementing the new revenue recognition standard (ASC 606/IFRS 15) so this is a second hit in a one-two regulatory punch.